


Whatever Remains

by subcircus



Series: The Immortal Ianto Jones [7]
Category: Highlander: The Raven, Highlander: The Series, Torchwood
Genre: Children of Earth, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-12
Updated: 2010-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-07 04:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subcircus/pseuds/subcircus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Team Torchwood try to fight both the 456 and their own government, Gwen is left reeling when she discovers how little she knows about her team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gwen & Amanda

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This follows the canonical events of Children of Earth quite closely, picking up on Day Four (with one notable exception) so even though this is technically a fixit it is still pretty angsty.

It felt like the world was ending. As she continued to stare in mute horror at the screen, Gwen's insides hurt so badly that she couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. But she couldn't look away, afraid that the act would make it real and then all those people would be dead. _Ianto_ would be dead. It felt like the world was ending, and maybe it was.

*-*

Amanda felt completely useless as poor Clem died in Gwen's arms. Despite her Immortality and all the skills and knowledge she had acquired over the millennium of her existence there was nothing she could do against these monsters. Every fibre of her being was telling her to run; to get as far away from London and from Torchwood as she possibly could. But she couldn't, and it wasn't just Jack and Ianto or her newly formed friendship with Gwen that was keeping her there. She actually wanted to stay and try to fix this.

As they turned their attention back to the small screen and the events unfolding in Thames House, Amanda could see the pain wrought on Gwen's face and wished she could do something to allay the agony her friend must be going through but the presence of Johnson and her men prevented her from revealing the truth to Gwen.

Once they were escorted into the back of a blacked out van, alone but for a single guard, Amanda risked offering words of comfort.

"Gwen, listen to me," she said, voice barely above a whisper as she laid a comforting hand on her friend's. "Everything is going to be okay."

Gwen looked up at her, confusion and a little anger in her eyes.

"How can you possibly say that? Yan…" she tailed off into quiet sobs, incapable of finishing the sentence.

"Will be okay," Amanda said firmly. Shocked, Gwen met Amanda's gaze again and Amanda looked intently back, hoping she could see the honesty there and have the sense not to ask any questions.

Gwen was clearly dumbfounded, but she seemed to get the message, just nodding before staring out the window, her face now thoughtful.

*-*

The blacked out van made its way toward Thames House. Outside the city was eerily quiet, the streets deserted in stark contrast to the earlier gridlock. Inside the van, Gwen's mind was reeling. Amanda was so certain that Ianto was okay, it was though she knew something about Ianto or the 456. What secrets was she keeping from the rest of the team?

And then uncertainty gripped Gwen as she replayed the events of the last few days and she wondered if she was the only one in the dark.

Jack had already encountered the 456 once before, he knew more about them than anyone. And Ianto had seemed so confident and unafraid as they left the warehouse that Gwen didn't know what to think about him.

More secrets and lies. Par for the course with team bloody Torchwood.

Once they reached Thames House, they were escorted to a large hall. The air conditioning had been turned on to help preserve the bodies and Gwen shivered as she entered the room. It smelled clinical, of antiseptic and other chemicals Gwen couldn't identify but which she presumed had been used to decontaminate the building.

The bodies of the fallen lay in neat rows, covered with red sheets, and Gwen was reminded of images she'd seen as a child of miners' bodies laid out in church halls after a pit collapse.

There were so many, they needed to be directed to where Jack and Ianto lay, which was funny in a sick way and Gwen had to stifle a laugh as she followed the UNIT officer's directions.

She knelt between them and pulled the first sheet from the face underneath; it was Jack. Gwen released the breath she hadn't realised she was holding and looked up at Amanda, who smiled reassuringly and then knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know this must be hard, but they will both come back. I promise," she whispered. Gwen's confusion must have shown on her face because she added "We'll explain everything later, when it's over."

Gwen still couldn't understand, couldn't process the information. She pulled back the other sheet and there lay Ianto, cold and pale and definitely dead. He wasn't like Jack, nobody was, so he couldn't come back. She was about to say this to Amanda when Jack revived behind her.

She only spared him a glance, but it was enough to see a look pass between him and Amanda that confirmed what she already suspected. Whatever was going on here, Jack knew about it, which probably meant Ianto had known too.

Her train of thought was interrupted when suddenly, impossibly, Ianto sat up with a sharp intake of breath. Jack darted forward to grab him into a hug, but Ianto looked at Gwen over his shoulder. She could see shock and guilt on his face for a moment, but then it was replaced by his warm and friendly smile that he used to reassure the public.

_Yup, he knew too_, she thought. But Amanda had been right about one thing; whatever was going on here could wait. First they had to get rid of the 456.

*-*

Amanda's heart and mind were racing. This was too public, too many watchful eyes were about to witness Ianto revive. If they were lucky, UNIT would chalk it up to whatever they thought was keeping Jack alive. If they were unlucky, one or all of them could be dissected like a lab rat before the day was through.

Gwen's quick steps beside her were strangely muffled and Gwen hadn't said a word to her since the van. The silence was positively deafening. Amanda had no idea what her reaction was going to be to Ianto's Immortality, but she didn't seem the type to take such deception lying down. Perhaps Ianto had been right all along, that honesty had indeed been the best policy in this case, but they had all agreed it was for Gwen's own good to keep her in the dark. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but Amanda should have known from her own experience that it was hard to hide Immortality in such circumstances. It had been part of her reluctance to join Torchwood the first ten times Jack asked her.

As they approached the place where Jack and Ianto lay, Amanda was relieved to feel the presence of another Immortal. What the 456 had done was completely out of her realm of understanding and she had been worried that they'd somehow killed Ianto and Jack permanently. Whatever they had done, it was taking both men a very long time to revive; it must have seriously damaged their bodies.

Gwen kneeled down and pulled back one of the sheets covering them, revealing Jack's face. She let out a breath and looked up at Amanda. Feeling she needed to reassure Gwen, she smiled and then kneeled down so she could put her hand on Gwen's shoulder.

She checked that they were out of earshot of the others in the room before repeating her assurances that Ianto would be okay, and promising that Gwen would get her answers, just not yet.

First they had to eliminate the bastards who had filled this room.


	2. Jack and Ianto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The events of Day Four from Jack and Ianto's perspectives.

He'd been an idiot. A stupid idiot, spurred on by a mixture of guilt and defiance to make this ridiculous gesture and now innocent people were paying the price of his bravado. As he and Ianto walked into that room, their greatcoats flaring out behind them like the cloaks of superheroes, safe in the knowledge that neither of them could die here today, Jack had felt invincible. In that moment he truly _was_ Torchwood.

Idiot.

He should have known better than to call the 456's bluff. Because he should have known it wasn't a bluff. Sure, he'd dealt with a lot of alien cultures who thought that a few theatrics would make the human race kowtow to them but who didn't have the ballistics to back up their threats. But he'd also faced the Daleks, had witnessed what the Cybermen could do and had grown up in terror of the creatures that took Gray. He should have known that the 456 weren't the type to make empty threats or to worry about skulking in shadows.

*-*

Panic gripped Ianto's heart as he realised that they were all trapped inside Thames House. Only a few moments ago, stood beside Jack, he had felt invincible but now he saw how wrong he was. He and Jack would walk out of this mess, but they would be the only ones and everyone else in the building was going to die because he had bullied Jack into standing up to the 456. He had gone from invincible to helpless in less than a minute.

Amanda had trained him well, and he had grabbed his long coat and the sword concealed within on automatic as he left the warehouse, so he tried one last, futile attempt at breaking the glass. He drew his sword and took a swing at the reinforced glass protecting the 456 in its tank. It had withstood fire from both his and Jack's guns, so he really didn't think 14th century hardware would even scratch it, but he had to try something. Because if everyone in Thames House was about to die, he at least wanted to take one of these bastards with him.

"It's no use," Jack had a penchant for stating the obvious. He let out a growl of frustration and hit the tank with a fist.

"Well that certainly won't do any good," Ianto commented, sheathing his sword again. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Where exactly do you stash that?"

"Jack, it's not the time," Ianto admonished, but he couldn't help but smile a little bit.

"Hey, come on, we're dying, when is the time?"

Suddenly, a loud noise like a shriek began from inside the tank.

"What's it doing?" Jack asked.

"I don't..." Ianto began, but suddenly swayed on his feet, feeling dizzy. The virus was kicking in. "I..."

*-*

As Ianto slipped to the floor and into unconsciousness, Jack grabbed him and lowered him gently down. He still wasn't used to Ianto coming back and a tight ball of fear settled in his stomach as he watched the Welshman die in his arms. He couldn't do anything for the poor people outside that room; if he tried to open the doors he risked unleashing the virus on London. As he succumbed to the virus, he lay Ianto gently down and then lay down beside him, still holding him tight.

"Please, come back," he whispered in Ianto's ear.

*-*

They all sat in the canteen of Thames House, staring at the table, at the walls, at the ceiling. They stared anywhere but at each other or the body bags that were lined so neatly on every available floor space. So many dead and it was all his fault.

He, Ianto Jones, had caused this when he guilt-tripped Jack into confronting the 456.

"I need to fix this," he said quietly.

"How? How do we fix this?" Gwen asked, waving her arm to indicate the bodies nearby. Ianto hung his head in shame. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Jack staring into his eyes.

"We can make it right," he said. "For a start, you can take Gwen and Rhys home and save your sister's children."

"How?"

"Find the fastest car you can. I'm pretty sure the M4 will be empty, and the police have better things to do than chase speeders today. You can be there in an hour."

"But they won't just let us leave, Jack," Ianto protested. He looked to Gwen and Amanda for confirmation and they were both staring at Jack.

"Trust me, they will."

*-*

Jack asked Amanda to stay with him as Gwen and Ianto slipped away to meet with Rhys. The UNIT soldiers had obviously been ordered to keep an eye on him alone as they didn't even flinch when the other two left the table.

"What are you planning, Jack?" Amanda asked.

Jack let his shoulders slump. He really had no idea what to do next. All he could think of now was protecting the people he loved and the people they loved.

"He'd know what to do," Jack muttered. He didn't even realise he'd spoken aloud until Amanda responded to him.

"Well he isn't here, Jack."

Any further conversation was forestalled as Frobisher came and sat down opposite. Jack hadn't had time to let Amanda know what he was planning and he hoped she would forgive him.

*-*

Ianto huddled with a group of children, playing a quiet game of Incy Wincy Spider to keep them occupied when Gwen approached him.

"Is someone coming?" he whispered, ready to either run again or stand and fight. Gwen shook her head.

"I needed to talk to you. We might not get out of this. Or rather Rhys and me might not, and I need to know, Ianto," she said, and even though she was whispering Ianto could hear her pain in her voice.

He wasn't sure which was the worse betrayal: lying to Gwen about his Immortality all these months; or that he did it so readily. Apart from one objection to Jack, he'd been happy to keep yet another secret from a woman he supposedly trusted and who trusted him with her life.

"Now is not the time, Gwen," Ianto frantically whispered, keeping one eye on Rhi.

It didn't look like she had heard, she seemed too focussed on the children, but Rhi had an annoying habit of overhearing exactly what Ianto didn't want her to hear. He couldn't bear the thought of having _that_ conversation with his sister. Rhi and her children might not be his blood but they were still his family, and he needed that connection to humanity; he sensed that it would be all too easy to lose himself in Torchwood and Immortality without someone 'normal' to keep him grounded.

"We are all going to get out of this alive, Gwen, and I swear I'll explain everything then."

She glowered at him, giving him the stare that seemed to be the inheritance of all Welsh women when they became a Mam. But she seemed to accept what he was saying and returned to her own spot near Rhys.

Ianto couldn't begin to think how he'd make this all up to her and he hoped that one day she'd forgive him.


	3. Torchwood

Amanda had tried everything to stop Jack: cajoling, begging, even shooting him, but in the end she had stood in the corridor holding his daughter tight so she wouldn't try to stop him from killing his own grandchild.

Amanda knew that they had no choice but to sacrifice the one for the many, as galling as that might have been. She didn't like how that made her feel.

She was awash with conflicting emotions; joy and relief that the 456 were gone, horror and disgust at what Jack had done, bitterness that he had thrown away something she could never have, but also admiration because he was able to sacrifice so much to save everyone else's children.

She walked into the room and over to where Jack stood looking utterly bereft. She raised her hand to his cheek but he pulled away, his eyes filling with tears.

"Don't," he said; his voice so hoarse with grief that it came out barely a whisper.

"He'll forgive you," she replied.

"Really? Because I won't."

*-*

It was all over, and Jack would be coming home. Somehow they had survived and defeated the 456. Gwen smiled and rubbed a hand over her stomach, it wasn't much yet, just a little speck, but it was hers and Rhys' and thanks to whatever Jack had done it would grow up safe from the 456.

She was still waiting for an explanation from Ianto. Coming back from the dead wasn't exactly a new concept for her to digest, in fact it was becoming almost commonplace. Whatever the explanation, he was still Ianto Jones, her friend, and that was all that mattered. She could forgive the lies, she could even understand them. What that said about the person she'd become, about what Torchwood did to people, was something she'd rather not contemplate.

There was a lot to do before things could get back to any semblance of normal. It would take time; but they could rebuild the Hub and in the meantime they could work out of another building. They were bruised and battered but they had survived; Torchwood had survived.

*-*

Jack wasn't sure he could return to Cardiff, wasn't sure he could ever look into Ianto or Gwen's eyes ever again. He was worried he'd see disgust there, and the worst part of it was that he'd deserve it. Ianto had said that he wasn't all surface and he'd been right because Jack had tapped a darkness inside which even he hadn't suspected could exist.

He kept telling himself that he had done it for the right reasons, kept reminding himself that it was what the Doctor would have done. But a small voice at the back of his head kept asking "Was it?" and he knew deep down that the Doctor would never sacrifice anyone but himself.

But Jack couldn't do that; he could only give everything else he had. Destroy everything else he had that was good.

But there was still Ianto. If he didn't have him, Jack thought he would leave this world behind forever.

*-*

Ianto had stayed with Rhi and the kids until he was certain they were safe. Then he'd returned with Gwen and Rhys to their house. UNIT could clear up their own damn mess, and with the Hub destroyed they were uncertain of where else to go.

Amanda had called to tell them that they were heading back to Cardiff but she wouldn't give him any details of what had happened with the 456 and something twisted in Ianto's gut, telling him that it was bad.

He tried to think of how to tell Gwen about his Immortality while he waited for Jack and Amanda to return, but he didn't know whether Amanda would appreciate having her Immortality revealed, and he didn't want to say too much in front of Rhys. Much as he cared for Gwen's husband and was grateful for all he'd done over the last few days Ianto didn't feel comfortable about that. Thankfully he was spared any interrogation because Gwen and Rhys both fell asleep on the sofa soon after Amanda's call.

A couple of hours later he heard a vehicle pull up and went outside to greet them. Amanda pecked him on the cheek and went inside, but Jack remained in the car, sat stock still behind the wheel. The knot in Ianto's stomach tightened further as he slipped in beside Jack and they drove off in silence.

Jack found a deserted car park and pulled in, killing the engine. They sat there in silence for ten minutes until finally Jack told him how he had driven off the 456 by killing Steven. Jack was strangely detached and clinical as he spoke, and Ianto knew that one wrong word and he would break.

"It was the only way, Jack," Ianto said finally, his mind still reeling from Jack's revelations. He couldn't really process the information, didn't know what he thought or felt. But he could see that Jack needed him so he was here for him.

"It was monstrous!"

Apparently he had given the wrong answer. Jack was obviously hating himself, as anyone who called themselves human rightly should in these circumstances, but Ianto remained calm and the voice of reason.

"It would have been monstrous to ask someone else to do something you could not."

Jack looked him in the eyes and Ianto's heart broke in two. If he was angry with Jack, it didn't matter right now. Taking the older man's face between his hands, Ianto pulled him in for a kiss.

Everything that had happened in the last five days would take a long time to recover from. Gwen still needed an explanation for his resurrection, and the government might also want answers about that. The Hub was completely destroyed, along with who knew how much of the sub-levels. They would never be the same again, but they were all Torchwood, and Torchwood survives.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Sherlock Holmes: If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth. It seemed fitting


End file.
